Classifying Stars Station Lab - New TEKS 8.9A

This modular, student-led activity is fully aligned with TEKS 2021 standard 8.9A and is designed to keep your middle schoolers engaged while exploring how scientists classify stars. With everything included, you’ll save a ton of prep time while giving students the opportunity to take charge of their own learning.

In this interactive lab, students will describe the life cycle of stars, classify stars using the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, and recognize that the term “life cycle” does not mean stars are alive. This lesson is flexible and works great for both in-class and virtual learning.

Differentiated, Modular, and Student-Centered

Each station lab includes nine activities that give students a personalized learning experience. Teachers facilitate while students investigate independently or in small groups, ensuring engagement and ownership of learning.

All signage, resources, and task cards are included. The Explore It! station may require a few simple classroom supplies you already have.

The Stations

Input Stations – Learn the Concepts

• Explore It! – Hands-on demo or digital drag-and-drop in PowerPoint/Google Slides

• Watch It! – Short video with comprehension questions

• Read It! – Differentiated passages (English & Spanish) with vocabulary and comprehension practice

• Research It! – Facts, graphs, and visuals with guided lab sheet tasks

Output Stations – Show Understanding

• Organize It! – Printable or digital card sorts/manipulatives

• Illustrate It! – Sketches or diagrams to reinforce recall

• Write It! – Open-ended short-answer responses in complete sentences

• Assess It! – Task cards + vocabulary-in-context writing

Bonus Station – Challenge It!
Enrichment tasks for early finishers, including crosswords, games, and mini-projects

Virtual & In-Class Flexibility

This station lab is fully compatible with Google Slides and PowerPoint, making it easy to use in both traditional and online classrooms.

Why Teachers Love It:

• Differentiated for diverse learners

• Multimodal to keep students engaged

• Flexible in print or digital formats

• Minimal prep, maximum impact

This resource is also part of the Classifying Stars 5E Lesson Plan, which expands into editable presentations, interactive notebooks, assessments, and student-choice projects.

This is a finished product; it will be updated with corrections as needed. Future improvements and new features will be sold as a separate product.